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An open letter to those who defend Indonesia’s joining the Board of Peace

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January 28, 2026 at 11:15 am

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (C), Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi (R) attend the Board of Peace session held as part of the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026. [Harun Özalp – Anadolu Agency]

• by Dr. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat

This letter is directed at those who defend Indonesia’s participation in the so-called Board of Peace (BoP) for Gaza. The defense of this body is not about peace. It is about disciplining outrage and making mass violence administratively acceptable.

Public opposition to the Board of Peace is repeatedly dismissed as emotional. This dismissal is dishonest. What is being rejected is not diplomacy, but a familiar script: Palestinian suffering stripped of politics, Israeli violence stripped of accountability, and colonial domination repackaged as international management.

The Board of Peace treats Gaza as a technical problem. Bombed homes are reduced to numbers. Entire families killed by airstrikes disappear into damage assessments. Forced displacement becomes a financing gap. Political freedom is erased and replaced with reconstruction phases, donor pledges, and timelines. This is not problem-solving. It is responsibility removal.

Gaza was not destroyed by misrule. Gaza was not destroyed by incompetence. Gaza was destroyed by sustained military assault under a decades-long occupation and blockade. Any framework that talks about rebuilding while refusing to center this fact is not neutral. It is designed to protect the cause of the destruction.

The promise of a “New Gaza” exposes the logic clearly. Gaza is treated as a blank slate after bombardment. Palestinian life is treated as something to be redesigned, managed, and supervised. This is not innovation. This is the oldest colonial move: destroy, then rebuild under control, then call it peace.

Palestinians are excluded from the Board of Peace. Palestine is not a member. This absence is brushed aside as an administrative detail. It is not a detail. It is the core of the project. Decisions about Gaza are being made without Palestinians because Palestinian demands are inconvenient. Freedom, return, and sovereignty disrupt donor frameworks and security plans. A process that excludes the people it governs is not peace-building. It is domination.

Indonesia’s participation is often justified as a way to act as a protector or voice for Palestinians. This claim collapses under scrutiny. Palestinians have been clear for decades. The demands are not complex. End the occupation. End the blockade. Hold perpetrators accountable. Restore political rights. Sitting inside a U.S.-led, Palestinian-excluding structure does not amplify those demands. It neutralizes them.

READ: Italy needs more time to decide on joining Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’: Meloni

Claims that Israel has no influence because it is not formally part of the Board of Peace are misleading. Power does not require formal membership. A framework centered on security coordination, demilitarization, and externally supervised governance — while refusing to end occupation or demand accountability — advances Israeli strategic goals by design. Israel does not need a seat when the structure already enforces its priorities.

The argument that Indonesia must join the Board of Peace or condemn Gaza to centuries of suffering is a false ultimatum. It is moral blackmail. Gaza’s suffering is not caused by Indonesia’s absence from a board. It is caused by bombing, siege, starvation, and impunity — all tolerated by the international system now proposing to manage the aftermath.

Reconstruction without justice is not peace. It is containment. It locks Palestinians into permanent dependency while the system that destroyed Gaza remains untouched. Concrete is poured while crimes are buried. Aid replaces rights. Stability replaces freedom. History shows exactly where this leads.

Indonesia’s foreign policy was born from anti-colonial struggle. That legacy rejects the idea that oppressed people can be managed by powerful states for their own good. Joining a body that excludes Palestinians while coordinating with Western power centers is not neutrality. It is alignment.

Palestine does not need a redesigned Gaza planned in international meetings. It needs an end to occupation, accountability for mass destruction, and full political sovereignty. Any initiative that delays these truths — no matter how technical, well funded, or professionally managed — moves further away from peace.

Indonesia should not attach its name, credibility, or moral standing to the Board of Peace. Participation would not help Palestinians rebuild their lives. It would help normalize the destruction of those lives.

Peace without justice is not peace. Reconstruction without freedom is control. Solidarity that excludes the oppressed is betrayal.

OPINION: Prabowo does not care about Palestine

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

source https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260128-an-open-letter-to-those-who-defend-indonesias-joining-the-board-of-peace/